Life is interconnected and so are the topics on this blog. It might be cooking and gardening one day, yoga the next, knitting and sewing, or hiking and then bird watching followed by recycling or composting. They are the parts that bring humble joy to my life of voluntary simplicity in Montana.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Bloomin' and Growin'

"I just wanted to be able to see things growing from the house....and now you can"

Matt was very excited to show me the progress of the vegetable patch
upon my return from a long weekend of sewing with my mother and sister.
Its a perpetually amazing thing to me how quickly a seed goes from
nothing to just barely visible upon close scrutiny to several inches tall, just like that. You could NOT see any
of the plants in the garden from the windows of the house when I left.
And now you can. I didn't realize that that was one of our gardening goals, but I must say that I agree with him. It was quite satisfying to peek out the bedroom window this morning and see the bits of sprouting up green all over the dirt.

I've never grown rhubarb, but man! That thing is gigantic already! (background) It is a speedy grower. When we moved in (a little over a month ago) it was scarcely poking above ground. The strawberries (foreground) are really looking good too. Rootstock always looks dead and so I find it amazing that is soon enough looks like a living thing again. We are pinching off the blossoms so that the wee plants can focus on roots this year and thus be more productive. I do hate plucking off flower though....even if it is for the best in the long run.

Did I ever mention the raspberry bed? I know I mentioned strawberries.
I must say the raspberries are pretty unimpressive at this point. It
looks like we are growing a bed of sticks. But, give it time....I can
already taste those berries in future summers! Raspberries are my favorite of all fruits.

A wide view of the garden space, now almost completely cleared of random
junk and piles of grass. The beds are (right to left): #1 peas,
spinach, kale, arugula #2 strawberries and rhubarb #3 raspberries. If
Matt was here he'd tell you the names of the specific varieties of each
that he chose, but I don't remember off the top of my head so I'll just
leave it generalized.

Matt, talking to me at length and with helpful, illustrative hand
gestures about how the sun passes over the yard at different points of
day and the neighbor's tree's impact on sun penetration, etc. He is so
cute in his obsession.....

A few of these green onions will be in dinner tonight. We're hoping this is the year of the onion. We've not been terribly successful in past years, but try, try again!

I don't know what it is, but I sure like this flowering back yard tree.

I like flower that look like little faces....like this. How nice that I already had some planted for me!

When I left on Friday only a couple of these beauties were opened. They are such a captivating color I think. Not quite peach, not quite orange. They look sort of like a sunset in tulip form.

This was my favorite photo of the ones I snapped this morning. It shows the little purple guys, the tulips, the trees, the fence, even a hint of the grape hyacinths and bleeding hearts towards the rear. I can already tell that I am going to enjoy having enough space for actual FLOWER beds. So much prettiness...and I think this world can use all the pretty it can get!

Beth, I love the garden photos!I have read the book The Hunger Games and seen the movie and I like them both very much. The first time I saw the preview for the movie, I thought it looked absolutely horrible. A friend said she had read the book so she could discuss it with her step-son. She found it to be a fascinating story about one class of people dominating another. I told Jonathan he can see the movie if he reads the book first. (He is reading it on the Kindle my brother sent to him.) We have already had some good discussions. When he finishes, we will have to opportunity to talk about the terrible treatment of slaves and Native Americans in our country. David is a bow hunter ed instructor and he is very patient with us. Perhaps you will get an opportunity to try archery again with a really good teacher!Have a wonderful weekend............Denise